Newspapers report that anxious high school seniors are paying hundreds of dollars for professional help with their college entrance exams. Some students even pull ready-made essays from the Internet. They might be surprised to learn that admissions officials are tired of reading polished essays that all sound vaguely the same.

What kind of essay will convince a college official that a student is worthy of admission?

The purpose of a college application essay is twofold, says Paul Raccanello, a college admissions officer at Dominican University of California. First, a college wants "to get an idea of who you are as a student, what you're bringing to the college, what qualities you bring to our university. The second part is more for us to see what you can do with your writing. Are you ready for college-level work, can you write a clear, concise, structured essay based on the questions that we ask?"

Admissions officers read numerous entrance essays in a short period of time. Time restrictions force them to devote just a few minutes to each essay. The ability to be creative is paramount. While awards and community service stints are valuable experiences, students shouldn't feel restricted to such subjects. What college admission officers really want to see is originality and creativity. They want to know what makes a student tick.

"When I advise students ... the first thing I always tell them ... is to write about something that makes you excited. Something you're really passionate about," says Raccanello. "The actual events themselves are not as important as what you learned and what you gathered from the event."

In the same vein, college admissions officers are not necessarily interested in the breadth of one's vocabulary. While a dictionary and thesaurus make useful editing tools, they should be used only after an essay is written. Student authors need to focus first on capturing an experience in words.

"Write the essay out in its entirety," says Raccanello. "Don't try to use big vocabulary words or try to get it to sound perfect the first time. Write it out and get your thoughts on the paper. Revise it, and put down more thoughts."

He also advises students to describe their feelings about events and experiences; summaries of actions are not as interesting.

"The personal essay demands your involvement emotionally, intellectually," says Andrew Todhunter, author of Dangerous Games. "You have to get in and wrestle with it."